H7N9 Penitence

by Mark Campbell

  “The stadium… Can you really get me inside?” Teddy asked.

  “Y-yes, absolutely,” Harris said.

  “And you’ll take me there? No fucking around?”

  “Of course,” Harris assured. “Why would I lie to you? I just want to get back to my daughter… I can’t really use a rifle in my condition and I’m pretty sure that all of my companions are either dead or have fled the scene.” He paused. “I need you just as much as you need me.”

  Teddy slung his rifle over his shoulder and held out a hand towards Harris.

  “Good, come on, get up,” Teddy said. “Let’s get the fuck out of here.”

  Harris took Teddy’s hand and pulled himself up, grunting in pain.

  Teddy looked at the man and frowned.

  Harris stood hunched over and swayed side-to-side. He was soaked with sweat and his gasmask was covered with condensation. Blood soaked through his uniform and ran down his wounded arm.

  “Are you alright to walk?” Teddy asked.

  “I’m fine,” Harris said weakly. “I just lost a lot of blood, that’s all.”

  “Follow me then,” Teddy said as he got his rifle ready.

  They slowly made their way down the dark corridor while sporadic gunfire popped off from somewhere far away.

  It was rather an odd sensation: walking through the iron grilles that led to his freedom. Teddy had always assumed that it would feel liberating, but in actuality it was terrifying - considering the circumstances.

  Harris lagged further behind and began to stagger as he walked. He struggled to maneuver in-between the piles of slacked lime and gurneys as he squinted and held onto his arm.

  A final security grille located at the end of the corridor was slid open and led to a steel door. The door was cracked open and sunlight poured through the seams.

  Just as he neared the final grille, Teddy heard a thud behind him.

  Teddy turned and saw Harris slumped against the wall with his head hung low.

  “Come on! We’re almost there!” Teddy barked.

  “J-just give me a minute to collect myself…” Harris said. He reached a hand up and wiped the fog off of his gasmask’s visor.

  Teddy let out an annoyed snort, and looked around. He grabbed one of the stretchers that was pushed against the wall next to medical and rolled it towards Harris.

  “Get on,” Teddy said.

  Harris glanced up at the stretcher and saw that the mattress was stained and covered with clumps of mud. He shook his head.

  “I’m not getting on that thing,” Harris protested. “It’s been used to cart off bodies to the pit outside. I’m not trying to catch the flu after all this time.”

  “It wasn’t a request, your highness,” Teddy said. “I’m sorry that I don’t have any Lysol disinfectant wipes, but get on before you get us both caught.”

  Harris grumbled as he slowly and awkwardly tried to climb on top of the stretcher.

  Teddy sighed, grabbed him by the belt, and hurled him on top of it.

  “Hey! Easy!” Harris shouted. He grabbed his bleeding shoulder and hissed in pain.

  Teddy rolled his eyes and started pushing the stretcher towards the steel door past the final security grille.

  He squinted as he pushed the door open with the stretcher.

  The doorway led to a narrow hallway with glass on each side. Most of the glass was cracked and a few panels were shattered. Unlike the rest of the prison, the floor was covered with laminated tile. Puddles of water had collected on the floor and frayed wires dangled from the ceiling.

  At the end of the hall stood tinted glass sally port doors that led into another small building separate from the rest of the prison. Even through the sally port doors were closed, the glass was shattered and rendered the doors useless. A red sign above the shattered doors read ‘All Staff Must Present ID to Control Center Officers’.

  Teddy pushed the stretcher towards the sally port and looked outside the windows as he walked past.

  He noticed that for the first time in a long time, he was standing outside the walls of USP Tucson. The monolithic grey concrete structure stretched all around the institution and looked like an island in an endless ocean of sand. The harsh landscape was peppered with the same cacti and thorny desert fauna. It looked like a strange alien world to Teddy.

  He frowned at what was waiting for him just past the prison walls; it depressed him to realize just how much he had romanticized the outside world in his mind over the years.

  It didn’t look like freedom at all. It looked rather like hell.

  Teddy looked straight ahead, scowled, and pushed the stretcher through the first shattered sally port door.

  Inside the sally port there was a large glass window looking into the control center.

  Teddy glanced inside and saw a semicircular desk covered with monitors. Additional monitors hung down from the ceiling and every station was unmanned. It reminded him of a cockpit, albeit a very low-budget one.

  Harris lay on the stretcher holding his shoulder, moaning in pain.

  “Be quiet and stop drawing attention,” Teddy whispered. “I don’t know what’s waiting for us on the other side.”

  “I’d love to hear how quiet you’d be if you were shot,” Harris grumbled.

  Teddy pushed the stretcher through the shattered sally port door and stopped in the lobby.

  Bullets and blood covered the floor, and dead soldiers lay scattered across the room. The reception desk was unmanned and the staff metal detector and x-ray machine were both riddled with bullet holes. All of the lobby’s glass entrance doors hung open – broken at the hinges. The chairs in the waiting area were overturned – adding to the general disarray in room. Official portraits of the warden and the other executive staff hung askew on the wall above the front doors and were positioned below brass letters that spelled ‘USP TUCSON – ONE TEAM, ONE MISSION’.

  Despite the number of slain soldiers, Teddy only spotted a handful of dead inmates.

  Teddy stared at the dead soldiers and shook his head with disgust.

  “Well, it doesn’t look like the soldiers are our main concern at the moment,” Teddy said.

  Harris forced himself to sit up and looked around. His eyes widened with horror.

  “Oh fuck…” Harris stammered. “Holy Christ…”

  Teddy nervously looked over his shoulder; whoever killed those soldiers couldn’t be too far away.

  “We need to get the fuck out of here and fast,” Teddy said.

  Harris collected his thoughts and cocked his head to the side as he peered towards the front of the building.

  “There. Outside,” Harris said as he pointed a finger towards the shattered glass doors.

  Teddy looked.

  A military flatbed was backed up onto the steps leading into the lobby.

  “That’s our truck!” Harris announced. “Do you see it?”

  “Yeah, of course I see the fucking truck,” Teddy said. “The question is why it is still here? Since the soldiers are dead, why didn’t someone steal the thing and drive off into the sunset?”

  “Ponder that on your own time,” Harris said. He grunted and crawled off the stretcher. He stood up slowly, gripping his arm. “I’m getting the hell out of here and I suggest you do the same.”

  Harris hobbled towards the exit quickly, stumbling side-to-side as he walked. He took off his stuffy gasmask and dropped it on the floor.

  “Can’t you see that this doesn’t make sense?” Teddy asked.

  Harris ignored him and kept moving. He took a deep breath of fresh air as he neared the doors.

  “Goddammit,” Teddy muttered. He unslung his rifle and followed Harris. “I’m too old to babysit.”

  Harris shuffled through the front door as glass shards crunched under his boots.

  Teddy stepped outside and was surprised to see that, despite the number of dead staff members he had seen throughout the facility, the parking lot was mostly empty. A few sedans and carpool
vans were scattered through the massive lot. Tattered military tents and wooden barricades were situated at the far end of the lot along with dead generator-powered halogen mast lights.

  He looked down and noticed fresh corpses wearing khaki and orange. The weapons that they had once carried were lying at the bottom of the bullet-chipped concrete steps leading up to the lobby doors.

  Teddy readied his rifle and scanned the parking lot, but couldn’t see the shooter.

  “Something’s not right…” Teddy said, shaking his head. “We should go back inside.”

  Harris ignored him and walked towards the front of the truck.

  Both the driver-side door and the passenger-side door were open and two bloodied inmates lay slouched on the dashboard; both of them practically eviscerated by gunfire. The windshield was shattered and glass shards covered the cabin.

  Harris’ expression sank as he stared at the two men.

  Teddy squinted as he looked off towards one of the vehicles parked in the corner of the lot; it was a red Toyota. He spotted three terrified inmates crouched down in the Toyota’s shadow with their eyes and weapons pointed up towards the sky.

  Suddenly, he heard the whirl of an approaching helicopter.

  “Aw, shit!” Teddy shouted hoarsely. He turned towards Harris and pointed at the lobby. “Get back inside! Now!”

  Harris gripped his wounded arm and turned just in time to watch as the craft banked over the top of one of the housing units and passed over the parking lot.

  The helicopter’s twin M134 machine gun barrels started spinning and unleashed a hail of gunfire towards the Toyota.

  Sparks ricocheted off the small car, and the windows shattered as the bullets tore through it as it was nothing more than a wet napkin. The doors fell off and flames started leaping up from underneath the hood.

  All three inmates that were taking refuge behind the vehicle convulsed as their bodies were ripped apart.

  The car erupted into a massive fireball and threw debris all across the parking lot as black smoke billowed into the air.

  Harris watched the unfolding scene in horror.

  As the car’s remnants burned, the helicopter stopped firing and its machine guns stopped spinning. It hovered over the center of the lot and turned towards the lobby–

  Teddy snatched Harris by the back of his neck and forced him up the steps towards the front doors.

  The machine gun barrels started spinning once again.

  Teddy shoved Harris into the lobby and pushed him over the top of the reception desk.

  Harris knocked over a monitor and a stack of papers as he rolled across the desk and fell on the floor.

  “Stay down or you’ll catch a bullet! This desk won’t stop what that thing is spitting at us!” Teddy yelled. He dropped his rifle, dove across the desk, and landed hard on the floor next to Harris.

  Bullets ripped through the front and shattered what little glass remained. The aluminum door frame bent and twisted as it was knocked off the concrete, and the pictures of the executive staff that were hanging above the entrance fell down.

  Teddy and Harris cowered down behind the desk as the florescent tubes above them shattered, and ceiling tiles came crumbling down all around them. Bullets cut through the wooden desk and whistled past, missing their heads by inches.

  After several seconds, the gunfire stopped.

  Smoke and dust filled the lobby as pieces of the ceiling dangled in the air and dislodged lighting fixtures swayed side-to-side.

  Coughing, Teddy got on his knees and dusted himself off. Aside from what felt like a few bruised ribs from the fall, he was alright.

  “Are you okay?” he asked as he looked down at Harris.

  Harris was covered in dust and his helmet was crooked, but other than his previously wounded shoulder, there did not appear to be any fresh wounds.

  “I’ll live,” Harris said groggily.

  Teddy helped him sit up. He glanced outside and saw that the helicopter was still hovering above the lot and facing the building.

  “What the fuck is he still doing out there?” Teddy asked.

  The helicopter turned slightly towards the flatbed truck and the guns started spinning once again.

  Teddy’s eyes widened as soon as he realized what was happening.

  “Get–”

  Before Teddy could get the words out of his mouth, the craft opened fire at the truck.

  Teddy and Harris ducked once again.

  Steel panels flew off the vehicle and the tires popped. Glass shards went flying as the cabin was torn to shreds. Steam and smoke started to rise out of the grille and oil dribbled out of the engine block.

  The helicopter stopped firing, raised altitude, and simply hovered over the parking lot.

  Teddy and Harris got back up again, coughing loudly. The smell of motor oil and burnt rubber stung the inside of their noses.

  The radios on the dead soldiers lying in the lobby started chirping and warbling with feedback.

  “Zulu to Charley Command,” a voice said over the radio. “Charley Command, come in, over.”

  “Go with your traffic Zulu.”

  “We’re holding position outside the facility, but we lost all contact with Lemma and Foxtrot ground units. Please advise, over.”

  “Charley Command to Zulu, return to the stadium. The mission is a total loss. Secondary team is on the way.”

  “Zulu copies. Zulu out.”

  The helicopter turned away from the lobby and started flying north - away from the institution.

  Teddy’s face reddened when he looked at the disabled truck. He picked up the broken computer monitor off of the floor and hurled it across the lobby.

  “Son of a bitch!” Teddy shouted. He ran his fingers through his hair and started pacing. “That was our only ticket out of this place!”

  Harris’ face was pale. The blood from his wounded shoulder soaked through his uniform, ran down his arm, and dripped on the floor. Beads of sweat covered his forehead. He breathed heavily and leaned against the desk.

  “Maybe… Maybe we could use one of those other cars parked out there,” Harris suggested.

  Teddy stopped pacing and glared at him.

  “Yeah, that’s a great plan,” Teddy said. “Let me just pull a ring of keys out of my ass and start one up.” He grumbled and shook his head as he started pacing again. “I’m in here for bank robbery, not grand theft auto. I don’t have any idea how to hotwire one of those things.”

  Harris’ knees buckled and he slid down to the floor, trembling.

  Teddy’s aggravated expression turned to one of concern as he crouched down and placed a hand on his shoulder. He examined his face and frowned.

  “Jesus… You look like shit,” Teddy said. He placed the back of his hand against Harris’ forehead; his skin was cold and clammy.

  “I’m not going to lie… I don’t feel so hot right now,” Harris said weakly. “I need to stop the bleeding.”

  Teddy moved Harris’ hand off the wound and watched as blood bubbled out through the uniform’s fabric. He grimaced and pressed Harris’ hand back against the wound.

  He looked around the lobby at the corpses.

  “Maybe I can use some of their uniforms, tear some into strips, and make some bandages,” he suggested.

  Harris shook his head.

  “No, I have a better idea… There should be a first aid kit inside the truck.”

  Teddy sighed and slowly stood back up.

  “Let me go see what I can find,” Teddy said as he walked outside. “We’ll get you patched up, and then figure out a way out of here.”

  Teddy picked up his riffle and walked down the steps towards the smoldering flatbed. The steel panels looked like Swiss cheese and pieces of the engine were strewn across the pavement.

  Both corpses slouched over in the front seat had been reduced to gory pulp.

  Disgusted, Teddy reached up, grabbed what appeared to once be an arm of the passenger, and pulled.

/>   The corpse flopped out of the cab and made a meaty smack against the ground.

  Teddy crawled inside and searched the glovebox, but all he found were some crumpled empty cigarette cases. He rummaged through the trash before slamming it close.

  The voices inside his head wouldn’t stop yammering away–

  Why are you doing this? He isn’t going to help you. He was going to kill you. He’s not your friend. He’ll betray you.

  Teddy shook his head and ignored the intrusive thoughts.

  In all honesty, he didn’t know why he was bothering to save a man that would’ve killed him if things had gone differently.

  Then again, he did not need to explain his actions to anyone anymore.

  Maybe that was the problem, he figured; it was a whole new world outside, and a part of him didn’t want to face it alone.

  He reached under the bullet-tattered seat and blindly searched with his hand–

  His fingertips brushed against a zipped nylon bag.

  Teddy pulled the bag out and looked down at it. It was a fairly simple kit that he imagined was sold at any corner drug store. He unzipped the kit and looked inside. There was a large roll of gauze and some cotton pads.

  He doubted that it would make much of a difference, but he had to admit that it was a better idea then tying some dirty pieces of uniform around an open wound.

  Teddy sauntered back into the lobby with the first aid kit tucked under his arm.

  “I found the kit, but I’m warning you now that I don’t know the first thing about dressing a wound,” Teddy said.

  As he walked around the desk, he stopped as soon as he saw Harris.

  Harris was slouched against the desk with his glazed eyes open and his chin against his chest.

  Teddy was too late.

  “Goddammit…” Teddy muttered.

  As he started to walk towards the body, someone grabbed the rifle hung around his shoulder and pulled–

  Teddy dropped the kit and stumbled backwards as the rifle’s carrying strap snapped and the weapon was yanked away.

  He spun around–

  Logan bashed the butt of the revolver against his face before Teddy even realized what was going on.

  Blood spurted out of Teddy’s fractured nose and he collapsed on the floor.